Category: Germany

5 BREWERIES IN ALTSTADT, DÜSSELDORF GERMANY We spent a few days in Düsseldorf visiting some of our friends, and were lucky enough to have the time to visit the Altstadt, or “Old Town” area which is one of my favorite places in Germany. This is a beautiful, classic town center that holds a LOT of breweries, restaurants, shops and bars. Every time we visit, we try to spend as much time as we can in this district discovering new and exciting things to buy, drink and eat. This time around we noticed a large Ferris wheel that was built recently on the river-walk/promenade which operates year round. While the weather was cold, rainy and foggy (late Dec. 2014), we made the best of it and walked around as much as we could. The breweries located in the Altstadt range from 100’s of years old, to just a few years old. The variety of Altbiers that are available is somewhat stunning, as this one type of beer usually has a full body, present malt and grain build, and sometimes a floral to spicy hop presence. You will find that every brewery does it differently and sometimes more successfully than others. Just …

BRAUHAUS MITTE, BERLIN GERMANYThe Brauhaus Mitte in Berlin Germany is owned and operated by the same people that run the Lemke Brewery down the street. This restaurant is a large scale operation with a full menu and dinning experience with traditional German fare. They do have brewery tours available at certain times of the day. The beers are the same between Lemke and the Brauhaus so the reviews are the same. They provide samples of their beer for a euro a glass. During the holiday season, they did have the Weihnachtsbock (winter bock) available when we were there, which was their best beer. The brewery/restaurant location is next to a large shopping center in Mitte, and it is located on the second floor of the building. You have to walk up a number of stairs to get inside, and if it’s icy outside it’s challenging. They do have some of the brew kettles located behind the bar area and you can go up and take a look. The wait staff at the restaurant does speak fluent English and we had no issues ordering food and beers and felt really welcome there. Oh, and they have a crazy leg of ham …

BRAUHAUS LEMKE, BERLIN GERMANY During a recent trip to Berlin Germany (Dec. 2014), we tried to find a few breweries to visit, and this one was actually just a few blocks from our hotel. Lemke is an old school German brewery with rustic tables and friendly wait staff located in the “Mitte” part of Berlin under an S-BAHN line. There were two sides to the location, we sat in the bar side, the main restaurant is a dim candle light dinner vibe. Looking at the menu, it had standard bar food and restaurant fare for most traditional German pubs with tons of meat, and few vegetables. The wait staff was fluent in English and had a good time flirting with some of the group. They do offer pitchers of their beer, not just 0.5l or 0.3l. The overall sense is more of a neighborhood hangout than a brewery. They only had a few beers available when we stopped by and below is my review of them. Lemkes Spezialitätenbrauerei GmbH – http://www.brauhaus-lemke.com Dircksenstraße, S-Bahnbogen 143,144 | D-10178 Berlin-Mitte phone +49 (30) 247 287 27 | fax +49 (30) 247 287 28 hackeschermarkt@brauhaus-lemke.de Lemke Original Munich Dunkel Lager • ABV: 5.5% • …